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South East Asia

It is a scandal that in 2013 women still risk death by stoning in 15 countries. Incredibly, that number is now set to rise as the southeast Asian kingdom of Brunei prepares to introduce this brutal punishment.

Last month, the Sultan of Brunei announced a harsh new penal code based on an interpretation of sharia law. Along with flogging and amputation for certain crimes, the code introduces death by stoning as a punishment for adultery.

Let’s be clear. Stoning is a heinous and protracted form of torture, and one of the cruellest kinds of violence perpetrated against women to control and punish them for the exercise of their basic freedoms and control over their own bodies.

This is an urgent appeal to help a 14-year old Pakistani-Canadian girl who's father will stand in court for molesting and sexually violating her for two consecutive years. There is a Facebook page that was created yesterday.Please see here:

The VNC Campaign was involved in the creation of the ASEAN Progressive Muslim Movement (APMM) in Year 1 of the WRRC Programme, and supported the attendance of the VNC Campaign Manager and a delegate from the SCN-CREST in Indonesia.

This project was implemented by the Foundation of Solidarity for Justice (FSJ), an organisation that has been working in Afghanistan to promote human rights, especially the rights of victims from the conflicts of the past three decades. Women’s Rights Club is FSJ’s new initiative to bring together people from different sectors of society to discuss controversial issues related to Afghan women’s rights within tradition and religion, and to raise public awareness about their rights, including rights to inheritance and property.

This paper argues that land administration systems are now businesses. At one end of a wide spectrum land systems are being re=engineered engaging in business strategies, competition policies, and formal professional standards. At the other end, developing countries in Asia Pacific are being advised on large international funded projects about the building blocks required to establish some of the basic operations of a land administration system.

Since the early 1980s land administration system projects have revolved around delivering and formalizing ‘old type’ tenures derived from stable legal orders and institutional recognition. Land administration designs and conventional tenure typologies are often engineered to suit assimilation of land arrangement into formal property markets. However, in developing countries in Southeast Asia the majority of the rural poor rely on systems of access to land sourced in social practice not law or government.

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women and the International Solidarity Network, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) are jointly concerned about the issuance of a new regulation in the district of West Aceh, Indonesia, which strictly forbids Muslims, especially women, to wear tight clothes. The new regulation was issued on Thursday, 27 May 2010, by the Head of the district of West Aceh. Non-Muslims who reside in West Aceh or are temporarily present in West Aceh are also required to respect and to adapt to the new regulation. This new regulation makes West Aceh the first district in the country to strictly implement an ‘Islamic’ dress code and if signed by the Provincial Governor would eventually be enforced in the entire province of Aceh.

In a Press Statement issued by Sisters in Islam (SIS), the Malaysian women's group, one of the most well-known nongovernment groups in this Muslim-majority country, registered their happiness with the decision by Sultan of Pahang, Duli Yang Maha Mulia Tuanku Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, to commute Kartika’s caning sentence to community service. According to Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno's father, Kartika received a letter dated March 26 from the Pahang state Islamic and Malay Culture Council on Wednesday, informing her the Pahang Sultan had decided to spare her the caning. Kartika, a former part-time model, was sentenced in July last year to six strokes of the cane and a fine RM5,000 for drinking beer in December 2007 at a beach resort, in violation of 'Sharia' laws. Meanwhile, The Malaysian Assembly of Mosque Youth (MAMY) is seeking an order from the High Court to prevent SIS Forum (Malaysia) from using “Sisters In Islam” as its name and identity because of its criticism of the application of these laws.